"This place..."

"… What can you tell me about this place?"

"It's like here in general. It's the same but different. But the differences might be the game changers."

"Anything specific?"

"This place… it's more of a gateway than I remember. Things not only just leak to this side, but it's also possible for things to slip in—or more interestingly for the locations to change."

"What I wouldn't give to stop it right here, right now."

"We can't do that. In order for our plan—"

"I know, I know. I still don't like it though. So much grief can be avoided here if I just—"

"Someone's here!"

"What!? Who could be here at this time!?—Shoot, I forgot completely about him!"

[Tag Force: Heroes And Villains.]

They all watched with varying levels of widened eyes or slack jaws. The way the strings were strummed and how his fingers moved with ease along the metal device made each sound feel like a masterful puzzle, with each piece fitting perfectly to the last. As the guitar melody slowly ended, the Ace of the Slifer Red dorms ended with one final note the hung in the air for a while.

Jaden Yuki ended his string with a strong note that held in the air even after he stopped playing. He looked up, exhaled, and smiled at his friends. "So, what do you guys think?"

Honest applause was his reward and Jaden couldn't help but blush the same color as his blazer and rub the back of his head. "Aww shucks guys, it's no big deal!"

"I had no idea you actually knew how to play the electric guitar, Yuki." The club president mused.

"My dad used to be in a band, and he taught me how to play the electric guitar." That was the first time many heard Jaden speak about something other than Duel Monsters and about him not being good at school. "It was pretty cool, he was a big music nerd and had like this entire room filled with some of the classic rock eras. He was kinda obsessed though."

"I think I'm starting to see where you get your passion for Duel Monster from." Bastion commented from the side. He wasn't exactly a part of the club, but he did decide to visit it. At that moment, he stood up. "I thank you for inviting me here in the first place, I do not play musical instruments but I do appreciate it works."

At that moment, Wilona clasped her hands together. "Misawa, can we bother to at least have your name on the sheet? You don't need to come, but we do need at least someone from Ra Yellow and the Male Obelisk Blue to extend the acceptance period!"

The young man thought about it for a second. "Hmm, having an extracurricular on my list does look good. Alright, in that case, I'll join at least officially."

The female Slifer Red gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you for that Misawa, this means a lot to me." That, and if he said no, she would have resorted to far more 'unorthodox' plans.

"Already making progress, aren't you Ms. Konami?"

Bastion wasn't the only one visiting though. Professor Banner and Pharaoh the cat were also visiting the music club. They too were invited and stayed a while to the activities of the club.

"I still need at least two more Ra Yellows, one female from the Blue Dorms, and three boys from the Obelisk Blue dorms." The green-haired girl listed, but could only sigh. Seeing as how much of trouble she did just to get her members so far, it was starting to feel more like a herculean task to keep a club alive.

"We know an Obelisk Blue guy." Grace, the silver-haired twin of the Tyler Sister commented.

The green-haired girl almost snapped her neck towards the younger twin. "What?"

"He's probably not interested in joining though." Gloria was disinterested when she said this, especially since she was reading a fashion magazine while she said it. "Heck, we don't even really know where to find him half the time."

"Well, can you at least ask him? Otherwise, I'd have to close the club down if I can't find members."

"Okay, prez, we'll keep an eye out for the other short stack!" Grace gave a salute and a wink.

Most of Slifer Red was curious at the silver-haired twin's comment, but Wilona then got everyone's attention by clapping her hands together. "With that, it is getting late. We'll meet up again on Monday since it's the weekend."

It wasn't long before everyone left the club. However, Jaden turned to his friends Chumley and Syrus.

"Alright, now let's go check out that abandoned dorm professor Banner was talking about yesterday!" The brunette was all too eager to throw his hand up in the air.

"Are we really going to do that?" Syrus didn't seem very thrilled at the idea of going to a supposedly haunted place when the sun was about to set.

"Come on, guys! Let's go and see what kind of place it really is!" Jaden moved all to eagerly even though it was Syrus who was supposed to lead them.

"Jaden, wait, not that way!"

Behind them, Wilona had just finished locking up the room and noticed her three dorm mates go in a different direction than that of the dorms. She had a bad feeling about this and decided to follow them.

[Tag Force: Heroes And Villains.]

Is that it? Whoa! Professor Banner was wrong: the abandoned dorms aren't scary—it's bone-chilling just looking at it! The dead silence, the beaten-up look, the cold air, the stay out signs—it's straight out of a good horror movie!

This is... awesome!

Hey, wait. Why do I suddenly have the weirdest case of… what was it called again when you feel something again even though it's your first time experiencing it? 'Dude ya voodoo'? DJ Flu? Have I already been to this place? Or is it that I just watched one horror flick about an abandoned mansion, I've now seen em all?

Wait, that rose over there is new. "Hey guys, check that out."

"Check out what's behind it." Syrus motioned back towards the abandoned dorms.

"It's probably filled with ghosts too!" Chumley's voice started to become high pitched.

"Relax guys there's nobody here."

SNAP!

"AAAHHH!?"

I turned the flashlight over to the sound to see Alexis—ugh! And feel Chumley and Syrus hiding behind me. Holy crap Chumley is even heavier than he looks and that's saying something!

So Alexis left a rose for her brother? Man, that's gotta suck. Maybe Alexis is right, maybe I should just go away from here… but… what's this feeling? Like something is calling to me from inside the old dorms? Even though Alexis warned me, there's just… I can't really explain it. I feel like I need to be here.

So I head in, Syrus comes along after I tease he might disappear if he doesn't.

Yet once inside… I gotta admit, this place isn't that bad! In fact, we could spruce things up, take some of those cleaning tools from Wilona and we could totally hang out here instead of the Slifer Dorms. Sure there's no awesome view of the ocean, but heck rebuild this up and the reds could totally take this place over!

I told Chummley and Syrus this only for them to knock my idea down. What? "Aw come on guys, how can you not like this place?"

"Jaden, are we seeing the same thing? How could we even live here!?"

"I just told you the place needs more sprucing up. Maybe we can get Wilona and the club to help us out so we can have our own dorms to ourselves!"

"I do not want this place!" Syrus, buddy, you gotta stop seeing only the negative stuff around ya!

Huh? While walking through these creaky floors, we stumbled onto some weird tabernacles you're supposed to see in a museum. They littered the hallway and—now that I take a closer look one these tablets are showing things called the Millennium Items. I even recognize them: The Millennium Puzzle. How can I not recognize Mr. Yugi Motou's signature Egyptian-styled necklace! I heard his gramps was an archeologist, but he sure knew how to rock Egyptian jewelry. I think I even tried to go as him one Halloween.

"Hey guys, check this out!" It took me a second to realize I didn't hear any of them and looked back. Huh, I must have been looking so hard at these tablets that I wandered away from both of them. "Syrus!? Chumley?!"

That's odd, I shouldn't have wandered far from them. "Guys, where are you?" I tried to retrace my steps, but I ended up entering into a hallway I've never seen before. I pointed my flashlight towards a picture to see some handsome looking brunette in an Obelisk Blue Senior uniform.

ᴶᴬᴰᴲᴻ

Hmm, I still think this place might be pretty cool. But It's so easy to get lost here and it's a lot bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. I still haven't found Chumley and Syrus. Chumley should be easy to spot while I can't imagine Syrus not screaming for help. That's weird—did they get scared and bail on me? I doubt they'd do that, but then again I did strong-arm them into coming.

"Meow."

I turned my flashlight— "Pharaoh! What are you doing all the way here, buddy?" I don't know why, but Pharaoh felt… different. Did he have a heavy lunch or something? Maybe it's just the darkness from this manor. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where Chumley and Syrus went, right?"

A bit of a stretch, but hey there's no shame in asking! Sweet! Pharaoh already seems to be talking one of the hallways at the right. I ran after the cat, and for a lazy and chubby cat, he sure moves fast! I'm barely catching him turn to the next corner whenever I catch up.

Eventually, he leads me back to the entrance, but I still don't see a sign of Chumley and Syrus—

"O-Oh!" Pharaoh jumps into the hands of…

"Wilona? What are you doing here!?" She had her backpack with her and seemed to struggle to hold the cat that jumped into her arms.

"I was following you all when I noticed not one was heading back towards the dorms. I lost sight of you and then saw this obviously condemned building. I heard a voice and went to check it out—apparently, it was you?"

"I lost Chumley and Syrus! Did you see them on your way here?"

The girl's purple-colored eyes widened before they seemed to fall flat. "No, and if they're as scared as you are obliviously brave, I didn't hear them running away in fright." She started walking while still holding on to Pharaoh—though was it me or was she holding the cat like a kid would their toy doll?

Aannnnddd she's glaring at me. "Well, come on then! Let's find Huffington and Truesdale, I'd rather not spend my weekend in a dump like this when we have a perfectly livable dump back at the dorms!" Yep, definitely just my imagination!

The two—or should I say three of us walked around the place more, passing by leftover Millennium Items tablets, pictures like one that seemed like the Student Body president with two guys smiling. One of them being that handsome brown-haired guy I saw a while ago. In the meantime, Wilona asked me what we were doing here in the first place. It didn't take me long to tell her about why we were here and that we met Alexis who explained everything about this place is true from rumors.

"Her brother went missing here?" Wilona looked surprised, I don't think I've seen her act like that before. "Oh, I didn't know that."

She looked as sad as Alexis did when she revealed it. I don't think she also had a sibling here, but I think… she might have also lost a family member too.

At that moment she shook her head.

"But still, even though Rhodes warned you, why did you drag everyone here? You know its illegal to do so and I didn't know until you told me. Are you really trying to get yourself expelled or are you just that daft?"

"Hey, I may not be good at school, but that doesn't mean I don't love it here! And more importantly, I like Daffy Duck as much as the next guy, but what does he have to do with school?"

Why'd she slap her forehead? "Alright, I can't take it anymore. TRUESDALE! HUFFINGTON! GET BLOODY OUT HERE THIS INSTANCE!"

I've heard of bloodcurdling screams before, but that made my blood want to curdle! What does curdling mean anyway? It didn't take long before we heard a scream in response to Wilona's—I mean who wouldn't be? But the tone of the shriek, it didn't sound like someone was frightened, it sounded like someone was screaming in danger.

The two of us shared a look before we ran towards the sound of the second scream. We arrived on a second-floor balcony and saw some kind of room where there was a card on the floor. Wilona and I ran up and I picked up and recognized the card. It was Etoile Cyber!

I know Alexis isn't the type to be careless with her cards. "Was that scream Alexis?"

"Rhodes? I thought you told me she left!?"

I stood back up and we both looked ahead to a new door… it didn't lead to another weird room, it looked more like there was something that was never completed since it looked more like a cave than something here from the house.

But if Alexis was in danger, we needed to help her! "Come on, Wilona!"

"Yuki, wait!"

I sprinted ahead and by the sounds of footsteps behind me, Wilona was also following along. There seemed to be some kind of ending at the cave way and we reached this massive dark cave-like room that looked straight out of a cult.

But I wasn't focused on that. Even in the darkness, I could spot something—two somethings: Chumley and Syrus.

They were on the ground groaning and above them was some masked, looming figure—but I didn't care. My friends—and even Alexis back in some coffin were in danger!

ᴶᴬᴰᴲᴻ ᵎ ᵚᵎᶳᶳᵉᵈ ᵞᵒᵤ

I shook my head. "Hey, you jerk! Give us back our friends!"

He turned—and now I'm starting to think that this place may be haunted after all.

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

So my new job is to scare a kid? I mean, not that I care since money is money, but I'm starting to think I should set up parameters or I'm just going to be more of an odd-job guy than a card game mercenary. It took a while to make an intimidating persona of Titan, the card game mercenary, so I'd rather be doing jobs with higher stakes than just scaring a kid.

Well, according to my new employer, I have to go to this abandoned dorm and scare the kid. I found one of his girlfriends watching him go in, so I put her asleep and I planned to use her as bait before creeping the heck out of this Jaden kid.

Weird thing though, even though I came here early to set up my equipment, I felt like I was being watched the whole time. Not only that, I think I spotted signs of someone being here recently before me.

But as I was making the final adjustments to scare the kid, I spotted something in the center of the room where I was going to confront him.

It was a trading card. I thought I already set the girl's card outside to bait the kid in, so did I drop another one by mistake?

Well if it's distracting me, it might distract the kid from his scare. I better pick it… up?

\Ī ķñōŵ ŏḟ ṯḫḛḝ\

What—What was that!? I swore I heard another voice just now. Was I imagining it?

\Ẁḭṯṋḗṩṧ ṁḛ\

I slowly looked back down back to the card in my hand. That's odd, I've never seen a card like this before.

\Ḭ ḫṳṉṫ ṭḣḙ Ḭṅḉḁṝṋạṱḝ ṍḟ Ḡḙṅṯḽḗ Ḋḁṛḳṅḙḗṧṩ. Ṭḣṍṻṩṫ ẃḭḽḻ ḩḙḹṕ.\

Wait, this monster card… are its eyes glowing? "Wait—holy shiii!"

I sense thee. I feel thee. I shall… trespass against thee.

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"Okay, I need to step in."

"No, not yet at least."

"This is way beyond them! This didn't happen back in—"

"I know you want to jump in. But this is also a test. Both the darkness and the light here—they are unencumbered. Their lack of restraint has caused an imbalance here and all the more reason why this… 'Jaden' must win against these odds."

"...The moment things get dicey..."

"I am aware. We need to act fast, he's already found those two Slifer reds and barely missed the third one. He needs to confront this. For all our sakes, if he can't..."

"We're asking too much of them. None of them are ready!"

"We can't handle this alone either. We tried and failed, this is our plan B."

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

Jaden demanded the imposing man to turn around.

And he did.

It's just, he didn't turn around as a normal person would. It was almost clunky like an amateur puppeteer trying to turn around a puppet, arms somewhat flailing, and the body jerking fast towards him with all the natural movement of a three-legged dog.

Not to mention despite the large man wearing a mask and a hat, his expression just felt vacant. "Thou are trespassing against me?" It wasn't just his voice that felt wrong, it was also the fact drool was coming out of his mouth, like he wasn't even aware of it.

"I have no idea what you're saying, jerk! But give me back my friends!" Jaden spoke before Wilona lent him her duel disk.

"Speak of thee's identity." The man walked past the two he had caught, seemingly facing Jaden on the opposite side of the room.

"The name's Jaden Yuki, and I'm here to kick your butt and take my friends back!" Jaden placed his deck into the duel disk.

The being paused in a manner that made the two currently conscious Slifer Reds feel something off. "Jaden Yuki… yes. This body remembers its mission. I shall carry it out before I carry mine."

Wilona gulped and held on to Pharaoh closer to her. "Yuki, be careful. Something's wrong with this guy."

Jaden listened to her, but still, he had to get his friends back. "I got this Wilona! Let's duel, you creep!"

Jaden: 4000

Titan?: 4000

"I go first!" The Slifer Red was first to move as he drew his card and looked to his hand. It wasn't bad, but not the strongest either.

Turn 1: Jaden. Cards: 5+1

"I play Elemental Hero Stratos in attack mode!" As he said this from the sky some kind of hero showed up that looked half hero, half-machine or at least geared up with amazing battle armor powerful enough to make turbine wings that allowed him to zoom in and out of the cave with uncanny speed.

Elemental HERO Stratos

[Type: Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Warrior

Attribute: WIND/Level: 4/ATK: 1800/DEF: 300]

Jaden continued with his turn. "I set a face down and end my turn!

Turn 2: Titan? Cards: 5

Titan motioned his hand out for the card to be given to him. However, something felt wrong about the way it was taken, as if some kind of strange... aura... was wrapped around it.

"I call upon thee, my land, my home: Lair of Darkness!" He exclaimed as he placed a card in his field spell lot. Now the scene changed around them. instead of a dark cave, they were outside. However, the area-the world around them felt unwelcoming, the trees were all black, withered, dead, cracks of pale green light were seen across the ground. Green gas seemed to escape the cracks and some of those gasses almost looked like they had faces. The change of scenery around them caused Wilona to move closer to Jaden while she seemed to watch everything else around her.

"W-What's this Field Spell!? I've never seen it before!" The brunette exclaimed as he too instinctively stepped closer to Wilona for some measure of safety.

"Lair of Darkness is a field spell that has some special abilities. The first one is that it turns all monsters on the field into a dark attribute." As Titan explained, something wrapped itself around Stratos, the hero monster tried to defend himself but it was like punching air. The bright side even though it was near complete darkness was that Stratos didn't seem injured from the change.

"As for the next ability, allow me to show you by summoning Ahrima, the Wicked Warden in attack mode." There was no light, but there was a glow. Some kind of dark glowing eye opened in thin air and walked in front of Titan, revealing some kind of Tiger with gear.

Ahrima, the Wicked Warden

[Type: Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Fiend/Attribute: DARK/Level: 4/ATK: 1700/DEF: 0]

"His effect is now activated. I can tribute one dark monster to draw one card from my deck."

"You summoned that monster just to tribute him for one more card?" Jaden thought about it, heck there were much better cards for drawing an extra card than that. Titan would just leave himself wide open next turn after wasting his normal summon.

"I am not sacrificing Ahrima." The two Slifer Reds started to pale as the large stranger now pointed to Stratos. "I am sacrificing thy monster."

"W-Wait! You can't do that!?" Jaden cried out.

Titan threw his hand out. "Lair of Darkness allows me once per turn to tribute a dark monster my opponent controls. The field changes all monsters into a dark attribute. Therefore, as long as this field spell is up, I can sacrifice your monsters to activate my monsters effects."

"That's crazy!" Jaden cried out before the tiger's third eye started to glow. Stratos seemed to fall to his knees before being swallowed by the very ground beneath them. At that moment Jaden recalled that his face down was Hero Barrier. It was supposed to negate an attack, but only if he had an Elemental Hero in the field, which was just destroyed by a card effect!

Titan drew his card and pointed at Jaden. "Ahrima, sharpen thy claws upon the knave!"

Jaden could only cry out one thing as the tiger went right for him. "The what on the what!?" Jaden felt a sting he didn't know and felt his entire body lurch forward.

"Yuki, are you alright?!" Wilona dropped Pharoah and went up to her friend even though he was still dueling.

Jaden: 4000→2300

Titan: 4000

Jaden clutched his chest where the Tiger slashed him. For a hologram, it really felt like his skin was being torn for a second there. "S-Sorry, that… hurt more than I thought it would."

"My turn shall end with this face down and an effect from Lair of Darkness!" The world around the duelist seemed to start moving, groaning, and a wind that sounded like moans of pain flowed through the area. Some kind of shadowy gas with cracked green eyes that appeared with a maddening screech.

"Behold! A Torment Token!"

(Fiend/DARK/Level 3/ATK 1000/DEF 1000)

"When a monster was tributed, I can summon one of these tokens. I choose this one to be in defense position." The towering man explained before turning around. "But since you lost Life Points, let's up the stakes, shall we?"

The two Slifer Reds turned to see the dead trees picking up Syrus, Chumley, and Alexis before starting to move away.

"Hey, what's going on!?" Jaden cried out as he saw the trees leave with his other friends.

Titan answered them. "If thou loses this duel, thou and thy allies shall be permanent residents in my home. After all, he wanted you out of this place."

Jaden made a move, but the token cut off his path and barred his way.

This time, Titan yelled, making even Jaden taken back from the raw emotion. "Thou shan't leave! Finish this Duel if thou wishes to save your companions!"

"But my friends!" Jaden looked back to see the three being taken away slowly. However, something past him and the Token a second later, and the brunette recognized the green color a second before his mind registered that Wilona was running away from him.

"Yuki, you beat him! I got the others!" That was all the girl could cry out as she chased after the moving trees.

Jaden had no choice but to turn back to his opponent. "Alright, I'm playing to get back my friends! It's my move!"

Turn 3: Jaden. Cards: 4

Although he said that, Jaden knew things weren't looking good if this clod had a deck filled with monsters that could just sacrifice his own monsters. He drew his next card and saw some kind of potential in it.

"I play Polymerization! I take Elemental Hero Heat and Elemental Hero Blazeman from my hand and fuse them together to bring out the biggest hotshot in my deck!" As he said this, two fire heroes jumped out of Jaden's deck and jumped above him, causing a small light to shine in this dark land. With a burst of flame, a new hero emerged.

"Give a warm welcome to Elemental Hero Nova Master!"

Elemental HERO Nova Master

Type: Fusion/Effect Monster

Sub-Type: Warrior

Attribute: FIRE

Level: 8

ATK: 2600

DEF: 2100

Despite the light shinning around the hero, Titan pointed to the monster. "My field spell turns your Nova Master into a Dark Attribute." As he said this, a dark gas wrapped around Nova Master, giving him a dark glow instead of the bright orange light he had a while ago.

"It still doesn't matter! I'm using Nova Master to attack your Ahrima! Go, Blaze of Glory!" Jaden punched forward as his fire fusion unleashed a ball of flame that was thrown overhead and exploded on contact with the dark tiger.

Titan pressed his duel disk, "I reveal my face down: Shroud of Evasion*! This trap card prevents battle damage when a dark type monster of mine is destroyed by battle."

Jaden felt annoyed that he couldn't actually harm the life points, but at least he still had something going on for him. "Nova master has his own ability! When he destroys a monster, I get to draw one card!"

There was the sound of a cooing noise that made the Slifer red look to his hand. A smile appeared on his face as he saw Winged Kuriboh in his hand. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes, buddy. I'm gonna need your help with this one soon." Jaden motioned his head back up before looking in the direction where Wilona ran off to with their friends. "I hope Wilona can get the others out."

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"What in blazes is going on here!? Truesdale! Rhodes! Huffington, Wake up!" Wilona ran across what seemed to be a dark field while trying to keep up with the trees that took the other three.

Something seemed to slow down the trees, enough that the green-haired girl could finally catch up and start to climb one of them to get Alexis out first. However, as she got closer, the branches shut her coffin and grew themselves over the closed casket.

"Not only am I now finding out black magic is real, but I'm also finding out it is an utter hob knocker!" The girl screamed the foreign slang/curse word before trying to pry off the branches. However, her success was much like the light in this world—nonexistent. No matter how much she pulled, she couldn't even budge any of the branches.

"Come on!" The girl tried to put her foot into it but it still showed no results. "There has to be something else here!"

As soon as she said the words, something was indeed moving around them. Wilona turned around and saw more versions of those faced token monsters. Pharaoh started to snarl but of course beings of darkness were not scared of fat cats.

Wilona could help but notice she was surrounded by these things. "I really hope Yuki wins, or else we might find out where Rhodes' brother really is."

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

Turn 4: Titan. Cards: 4.

Jaden's opponent started his turn by taking the card from his duel vest. "I play Dark World Dealings! Each player draws and discards one card." The two did so, choosing a card to the graveyard while drawing a new card. "Now I sacrifice my Token in order to Tribute Summon Mist Archfiend in attack mode!"

As he exclaimed this, the mist started to gather around and almost seemed to swallow the feet of both Duelists. At that moment, something swallowed the token and out came a fierce-looking archfiend monster.

Mist Archfiend

[Type: Effect Monster\Sub-Type: Fiend\Attribute: DARK\Level: 5\ATK: 2400\DEF: 0]

"I'm not done! Behold! I reveal Stygian Street Patrol in my graveyard and banish him in the graveyard to activate his effect which allows me to special summon a fiend type monster with 2000 attack points or less from my hand." He took another card from his hand before placing it on his duel disk. "Come forth, Archfiend Cavalry!"

There was a sound that everyone could hear as a demonic horse. They all looked atop a hill to see someone riding atop of the one that made that sound and it soon rushed into Titan's side of the field.

Archfiend Cavalry

[Type: Effect Monster\Sub-Type: Fiend\Attribute: DARK\Level: 4\ATK: 1900\DEF: 0]

"Great, two monsters!? Can this get any worse?" Jaden supposed it could be worse. None of them seemed like the type that would sacrifice his monster to activate their effect. Furthermore, Nova Master still had higher attack points.

It was at that moment that Titan continued his turn. "Now, I sacrifice them both!"

"Me and my big mouth."

Titan continued not to care and shouted. "In order to special summon Legendary Maju Garzett!"

The two archfiend monsters shattered and soon started to magnetize to each other, along with the mist surrounding the area. They all coalesced into this titan of a monster that gave a fearsome roar and looked straight out of the mind of HP Lovecraft.

Legendary Maju Garzett

[Type: Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Fiend/Attribute: DARK/Level: 8/ATK: 0/DEF: 0]

In the presence of that new monster, Jaden took a step back and he could feel his skin getting goosebumps just by looking at the creature. Winged Kuriboh gave words of encouragement, but that did little to help Jaden's mindset.

"When Legendary Maju Garzett is special summoned, it gains the total amount of attack points of all tributed monsters."

The hollow spirits of the tributed monsters appeared beside the beast before they were swallowed into one of the orifices of the new monster.

ATK: 0→4300

"4300 attack points!?"

"Now, destroy his Nova Master!" Titan pointed to the previously fire monster as the titanic monstrosity gather energy in all of its eyes.

However, there was one thing going for Jaden this time as his monster wasn't sacrificed this time. "I activate my face down, Hero Barrier! As long as I have a face-up elemental Hero on the field, I can negate one of your attacks!" The trap card unleashed a shield that took in the heavy blow of the legendary creature.

"I see. For now, though, I shall end my turn here." Titan explained.

Turn 5: Jaden. Cards: 2

Jaden drew his next card even though he was staring down the monster with over 4000 attack points. Winged Kuriboh started to talk to him and Jaden looked at the card he just drew. "Alright, I can do this then! I play the Spell Card, Full Force Strike!" Jaden pointed to Maju Garzett. "Now, I attack with Nova Master!"

"What?! But that card didn't change any of our monsters' attack points!" Titan cried out as he watched Nova Master leap with fist reclined towards the titanic fiend. The fiend fired a powerful beam at the Hero monster, but Nova Master avoided all attacks and slammed a fist right into the head of the field with such force that Maju started to fall.

"Full-Force Strike allows me to target one monster I own and for this turn, it can't be destroyed by battler, both players take no battle damage, but!" Jaden pointed. "The sweet part of this card is that if my chosen monster attacks one of my opponent's monsters, the opposing monster is destroyed after the damage calculation!"

"What!?" Titan cried out as he saw from the impact point of Maju Garzett, the crack of the attack point suddenly expanded all around and shattered the giant monster.

"That monster of yours is down, and I'll end my turn with a face down!"

Turn 6: Titan. Cards: 1

After he drew his card, Titan placed a card on his duel disk. "From thy hand, I activate Duke Shade, the Sinister Shadow Lord's effect! He can be special summoned by sacrificing dark monsters—even thou!"

Nova Master was swallowed by the darkness and a new monster appeared in his place.

Duke Shade, the Sinister Shadow Lord

[Type: Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Fiend/Attribute: DARK/Level: 4/ATK: 500/DEF: 2000]

Jaden didn't like how a monster appeared with only 500 attack points, especially considering what happened in Titan's first turn.

"His power is that when he is special summoned this way, he gains 500 extra attack points."

ATK: 500→1000

He was summoned in attack mode with obvious intent to lower Jaden's life points. However, even when things were looking bad for him, Jaden refused to give up. "I play my face down, the Quick Play Card, Hero Inspiration**! When a Fusion Hero Monster leaves the field by any way not by battle, I can bring back it's fusion materials into the field! Come on back Elemental Hero Heat and Blazeman!"

Elemental HERO Heat

[Type: Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Pyro/Attribute: FIRE/Level: 4/ATK: 1600/DEF: 1200]

Elemental HERO Blazeman

[Type: Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Warrior/Attribute: FIRE/Level: 4/ATK: 1200/DEF: 1800]

Elemental Hero Heat was in attack mode while Blazeman was in defense mode. "And I'm not done! Blazeman has a sweet ability when he's special summoned or normal summoned into the field! I can add one Polymerization card from my deck to my hand!" The Slifer Red did so, adding another fusion card to his hand. "But that's not all! Elemental Hero Heat has his own ability! He gains 200 attack points for every Elemental Hero on my side of the field! That's 400 extra attack points!"

ATK: 1600→2000

"Impressive knave, but only in thou's lowly standards. My Duke has an ability as well which allows me to target a level 5 or higher dark monster in my graveyard and add it back to my hand. I hath chosen, Maju Garzett!"

"Great! Not him again!" Jaden didn't like the thought of facing that giant again.

"But as of now, I shall let thee rest and end my turn by allowing my field to summon another Torment Token in defense mode!"

(Fiend/DARK/Level 3/ATK 1000/DEF 1000)

Turn 7: Jaden. Cards: 2

Jaden drew his next card. He looked up and knew that if he let this continue, his mysterious opponent would summon another monster and bring back Legegendary Maju Garzett again! He had to destroy those other monsters to prevent that!

"I place Blazeman in attack mode and activate his second ability! Now listen up, it's a complex one even for me, but boy is it sweet! By giving up my ability to special summon for the rest of this turn except by fusion summon, I can take one Elemental Hero monster from my deck and send him to the graveyard!" The Slifer Red searched his deck and found what he was looking for. "I choose Elemental Hero Bladedge! But the ability continues! See, when I send my hero to the graveyard, Blazeman gets to become Bladedge! His attribute, Attack Points, and defense points all change to match the monster I choose, which means!"

Jaden pointed as fires started to form behind Blazeman, looking more like Bladedge in pure flames. Blazeman gave off some kind of roar as he and the fire construct unleashed a burst of power.

Elemental HERO Blazeman

Type: Effect Monster

Sub-Type: Warrior

Attribute: FIRE→Dark→Earth

Level: 4

ATK: 1200 →2600

DEF: 1800→ 1800

"Now Blazeman, destroy his Duke! Fire spirit!" Blazeman started to rocket towards the Duke and had his flame spirit of Bladedge attack the monster in half before he exploded.

Before the explosion could get Titan, he pointed and shouted. "From my grave Shroud of Evasion's* second effect can activate! By banishing it from the graveyard, I can negate battle damage a second time!"

"What!? No way!" Jaden cried out even though the monster was destroyed. "I still haven't scratched his life points!?" He shook his head. "Fine! Heat! Destroy his token too!"

Heat did the same, firing a blast of flame to destroy the token.

Jaden was worried, but he had to admit, this duel was pretty cool. If only his friends weren't in danger and this guy wasn't such a jerk, he would be fully into this duel. "I end my turn with this face down and Blazeman's attribute return to normal."

Elemental HERO Blazeman

Type: Effect Monster

Sub-Type: Warrior

Attribute: FIRE→ DARK

Level:4

ATK:1200

DEF:1800

Turn 8: Titan. Cards: 2

The man drew his card. "I activate Allure of Darkness, I draw two cards and then I banish a dark type monster from my hand from the game, if I do not, I discard my entire hand. But I already have a dark type monster in my hand."

Jaden knew it was Maju Garzett, but what he did not expect was Winged Kuriboh to start to panic the moment his opponent drew those two cards. "What? What do you mean, something's coming? Isn't it Maju Garzett again?"

"No, knave. It's time I reveal my true self! I banish Maju Garzett from my hand to appease the effects of Allure of Darkness! Next, I play the magic card, Fires of Doomsday!"

As he played this card, two black fire tokens appeared with mono eyes over their faces.

(Fiend-Type/DARK/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0)

"This card allows me to summon 2 Doomsday tokens in defense mode and they can only be used for Tribute Summons for dark monsters." Winged Kuriboh started to coo wildly when he pointed to the card that Titan was holding on to. "Come forth, my true form!"

The two tokens vanished and were absorbed into the new card held by the being he used to be Titan.

The entire area started to shake horribly. The ground behind Titan opened up, revealing a multitude of screaming Torment Tokens raising to the sky and then a giant claw grabbed into the edge. Out came a black dragon with chains and laced with red runic lines all over it. Then it gave a powerful roar that seemed to shake the entire field.

As the roar happened, Jaden heard something else: something like a girl screaming— "Wilona!"

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

Wilona looked around as the Torment Tokens surrounded her. "I don't suppose any one of you are just horrible figments of my stressed imagination?"

"SHHAAA!"

"Well, there are more polite ways of saying no." Wilona stepped back before she noticed something on the ground that Pharaoh was playing with. "What? Where did you get that box?" The green-haired girl quickly picked it up and seemed to notice… light? Was there a light in a box?

"SHHAA!" The tokens screamed as they all rushed her.

Wilona screamed before her hand instinctively opened the box inside. Light burst out and what came out was… an… angel?

"Master?" The angel cried out before looking around him and seeing the darkness before him and the children behind him, especially the girl who had just opened his box.

"SHHAAAA!" The Tokens cried out as they continued their charge for the girl and the others.

"Begone!" The angel cried out as he unleashed a burst of light that seemed to scare away the other Tokens.

As the tokens left, and all seemed safe the Angel turned to Wilona. "Where is Yusuke Fujiwara?"

Wilona was flabbergasted but her mouth tried to speak for her. "W-Who?"

"He is my master and dear friend, you must have seen…!" The angel trailed off as he looked around him once more. At that moment, the ground started to shake violently and the ground opened up. It just so happened that Wilona was standing in a bad place and she ended up falling through a large crack.

She screamed before the angel dove and caught her back up.

"W-Who are you?" The girl asked as she was brought back to the surface.

The rainbow light of the angel was something of a breath of fresh air in this dark land. The angel then answered her. "I am known as Honest."

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"That was a huge risk just now, letting him out before his appointed time."

"You said they were going to need all the help they could get. We couldn't step in too soon, so his early wake-up call was the next best thing."

"Well, I guess now it's all up to this 'Jaden' fellow."

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"Wilona!" Jaden yelled before looking back at the dragon that appeared before him.

"Behold!" Jaden couldn't believe his eyes. The dragon and the Duelist both raised their left hand and were moving in synch as well as talking in synch! "My true form!"

Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair

[Type: Effect Monster\Sub-Type: Dragon\Attribute: DARK\Level: 8\ATK: 3000\DEF: 2000]

"Yikes! That's one scary dragon!" Jaden commented before Titan and Diabolos started to move again.

"I cannot be tributed, I cannot be targeted by card effects! And once per turn, I can use one of two effects. I choose to activate this one!" The dragon cried out as he pointed his hand towards Elemental Hero Heat. "I tribute a dark type monster, as with thine monsters, and I can activate this power!" The dragon crushed Elemental Hero Heat and seemed to gain dark power in his claw. "Now thou must choose one card in thine hand to sen to the top or the bottom of thy graveyard."

Jaden looked at his hand, seeing only Polymerization and Winged Kuriboh. With one of his monsters gone, a fusion summon wouldn't help him now. Jaden sent Polymerization to the bottom of his deck.

"Now come at me little ember! Come and feel the burn no flames can ever match!" Darkest Diabolos unleashed a beam of darkness straight towards Blazeman, incinerating him with a force unmatched.

Jaden felt a horrible amount of pain as he fell to his knees while his life points went down as well.

Jaden: 2300→500

Titan: 4000

"Now my turn shall end with Lair of Darkness summoning another Torment Token beside me."

(Fiend/DARK/Level 3/ATK 1000/DEF 1000)

Turn 9: Jaden. Cards: 1

It was at that moment that Titan heard something. He thought he heard his opponent starting to cry. "Your sorrow is wonderful, but it shall do little to save you or your allies Soon, my host's mission will be complete, and then, I shall continue my own!"

It took the dragon a second before realizing that it didn't cry, it was some kind of weakened laughter as Jaden slowly got up.

"Thou laughs?"

"Yeah! Why not? That move you did was just too cool! Summoning an epic monster to turn the tides of a battle? I can't help but love this game for having moments like that!" Jaden then forced himself back up to look at his opponent. "But I'm going to win this! I gotta win for my friends!"

Jaden drew his card and as he looked at he smiled. "Alright, buddy, your up!"

Winged Kuriboh nodded as Jaden took his card. "I summon Winged Kuriboh in attack mode!"

Winged Kuriboh

[Type: Effect Monster\Sub-Type: Fairy\Attribute: LIGHT→DARK\Level: 1\ATK: 300\DEF: 200]

"Thou..." Darkest Diabolos' eyes glowed when looking at the little creature. "I know of thee."

Winged Kuriboh seemed to fire his own retort, yet not many would see much bravery in something like a cotton swab trying to verbally attack a tornado.

"I reveal my spell card: Alchemical Experiment***! See, by tributing Winged Kuriboh and removing from play three monsters from my graveyard, I can Special summon a Winged Kuriboh Level 9!"

Jaden played the card and soon Winged Kurboh started to evolve. Instead of the massive dragon wings that Level Ten had, Level 9 was themed in red spiked armor.

Winged Kuriboh LV9

[Type: Effect Monster\Sub-Type: Fairy\Attribute: LIGHT → DARK\Level: 9\ATK: ?\DEF: ?]

Even though his attribute was supposed to change, the light around the small but armed creature never changed.

"Now here's how he works, Level 9 Winged Kuriboh can only stay on the field for one turn!"

"What!?" both the dragon and the duelist cried in unison. "A monster that will leave you vulnerable in your next turn?!"

"There's not going to be a 'next' turn! Winged Kuriboh Level 9 gains attack and defense points of all three monsters I banished! I Banished Nova Master, Bladedge, and Stratos! So my pal gains all of their points!"

The dragon and the duelist were horrified when hearing that.

ATK: ?→ 2600+2600+1800= 7000

DEF: ?→2100+1800+300= 4200

"7000 attack points!?" The dragon cried out.

Jaden pressed the attack now. "Go Winged Kuriboh! Crimson Slash!"

The small creature vanished before reappearing right in front of Darkest Diabolos—with an even bigger energy red claw behind him. Winged Kuriboh swiped and made the claw construct cut Darkest Diabolos into pieces.

"I-Impossi—" And the dragon exploded, knocking away Titan from that explosion.

Jaden: 500 (Winner!)

Titan: 4000→ 0

"Yes! And that's game!" Jaden pointed before suddenly remembering the stakes of this duel. "I won, so give me back my friends!"

However, he even though he said that Titan didn't seem to be moving. In fact, now that it was over, more and more of the Torment Tokens started to appear and the field spell didn't seem to dissipate. Some of the tokens were pushing themselves into the body of the massive man.

"Hey what's going on!?"

One of the Torment Tokens rushed for Jaden, but it was then it was cut up into pieces by Winged Kuriboh who was still in his LV 9 form.

"Whoa! Kickass, buddy! Thanks for the save!" Winged Kuriboh started to talk to him. "What? Do we need to get out of here? But what about the others!?" Winged Kuriboh made a few more sounds before turning his back.

"Wait? You want me to ride?" Jaden felt his wings for a second and suddenly realize he could touch Winged Kuriboh. "Whoa! No way, since when could I touch you!?"

Kuriboh suddenly moved and fired another claw slash at some incoming Torment Tokens. Jaden saw this but then also saw Winged Kurboh's armor and wings start to flicker. "Right! We better leave before your power-up is used up! But we still gotta find the others!" Jaden was able to climb atop Winged Kuriboh's shoulder armor and the two flew off in the direction that Wilona and the others left. As they caught up, they spotted a light up ahead.

"Whoa!? I thought you were the only light show around here!" As they got closer, Jaden noticed a familiar lock of green hair and red cap. "Hey! Wilona!"

The angel and the girl looked up to see another spot of light descend near them, revealing it to be Jaden and Winged Kuriboh who landed near them and had Jaden jumped off.

"Yuki, you won!" Wilona gasped a sigh of relief.

"Of course I won! He was good, but it was a sweet game!"

"Sweet game!? We were practically almost damned here and you're saying 'sweet game'!?" The green-haired, cap wearing girl grabbed on to the Slifer Red's shoulders and shook him violently.

"SorrySorrySorry!" Jaden started blurting out as the girl scared him more than the darkness of this world.

"Who are you?" The angel asked before the two Slifer Red turned to the angel.

"Oh, I'm Jaden Yuki, and that over there is Winged Kuriboh. Who are you?"

"I am Honest, partnered Spirit monster of—" The Angel didn't get to repeat the name as the ground started to shake.

The ground started to crack and in the distance, a new crack in the ground was forced open.

"False King! I should have recognized thou the moment I laid my eyes upon thy sacrificial visage!"

Darkest Diabolos had returned and unleashed a powerful blast of darkness towards them. Winged Kuriboh Level 9 Stepped in and slashed the incoming attack. However, even though the two attacks were canceled out. Kuriboh's armor and wings flickered in and out much worse than before.

Honest raised his wings. "That spirit's powered up version can't last long. If he falls, we will remain stuck here forever." He threw his hand out and focused a large amount of light in his palm before a portal opened up, revealing the same cave room they had all entered into before the duel. "We must go! This portal will not last long!"

"I will not let you!" Darkest Diabolos charged right for them, forcing Winged Kuriboh to rush in and meet with the powerful dark spirit.

"Winged Kuriboh!" Jaden yelled before he was pulled by Wilona.

"Help me get the others through the portal!" Jaden knew she was right and quickly helped get Syrus, Alexis, and Chumley back into the cave room with the help of Honest.

Meanwhile, Winged Kurboh Level 9 clashed with Darkest Diabolos. However, with each clash, Winged Kuriboh lost more and more of his Level 9 form. As Jaden and Wilona were able to bring Chumley safely out, they saw Darkest Diabolos overpower the small fairy monster.

"Winged Kuriboh!" Jaden yelled.

"Young Jaden!" Honest seemed to hit a light towards Jaden's duel disk which made his deck start to glow. "Use a card! My power will only help you once, so choose wisely!"

Jaden drew his card without waiting. "I play Transcendent Wings!"

Even though the card required a sacrifice, the power of Honest made the card shoot out and hit Winged Kurboh all the way there. An explosion of bright light filled the Dark Lair and forced Diabolos back. The light didn't die down though, but he could now see Winged Kuriboh Level 10 leering down at him.

"Nay! My vengeance is near!"

Jaden punched the air hard. "Let him have it, buddy!"

The Level 10 monster didn't hesitate to fire another explosion of light right for the dark dragon. It was so bright, even though they were far, even Honest had to shield his eyes from the light of the attack. A second later, Winged Kuriboh Level 10 appeared and released his power.

"He's right," Honest began. "We should leave before he returns."

And with that, the Slifer Reds and the two light spirits exited through the portal.

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"FUN!? COOL!? I SWEAR TO THE GODS, YUKI! WE ALMOST DIED, AND YOU'RE EXCITED ABOUT THAT LAST MONSTER FIGHT!?"

Not exactly the most gentle way to wake up, but Alexis didn't really have much of a choice in the matter as she was greeted with the sight of Wilona violently shaking Jaden… again.

"B-But it was so cooooollll?!" The brunette tried to argue while still being shaken by the cap-wearing girl.

"J-Jaden? Wilona?" Alexis woke up to find herself near a tree a little outside the dorms.

Wilona stopped what she was doing as both she and Jaden looked to the blonde. "Oh, Alexis! Good morning!" Jaden managed to say even though he was still a bit dizzy.

"What's going on? The last thing I remember was..." The girl placed a hand on her head before remembering— "That's right! There was some guy who blindsided me!"

"Oh, I took care of him! … I think. There's also a possibility we went to hell? If so, Hell's not as bad as people say it is. I mean—if hell has card games that good, I don't see how bad it could really be besides the pain each time you play." Wilona gave Jaden a flat look at that horrible description. Jaden flinched a little at the girl's glare before turning to his right. "Hey, Honest, where exactly was that place?"

Alexis followed Jaden's line of sight— "AAAH!? W-What's that?!" She yelled and pointed to the see-through angel.

"Wait, Alexis, you can see him?" Jaden asked before looking to Wilona. "Come to think of it, you can see him still, right Wilona?"

The green-haired girl raised her brow. "Yes? Am I not supposed to?"

"Well do you see Winged Kuriboh too?" As Jaden's duel spirit made himself known, Alexis yelled again while Wilona looked confused.

"Yes? I think I see him too, but he's not on your duel disk?"

Jaden looked to Alexis who was still flabbergasted and shocked looking at the two spirits. Then he heard a gasp seeing both Chumley and Syrus waking up to see some kind of angel in front of them.

Syrus, in particular, seemed to be horrified at the thought of seeing an angel. "Oh no! An Angel! This means I died! I knew it! I knew following Jaden would be the death of me someday, but I wasn't expecting it to be today!"

"Syrus that's harsh, bro," Jaden commented.

"He's not wrong, Yuki," Wilona grunted in a whisper.

Either way, Even though the night was late, Jaden had to explain what exactly was going on. Even then, with much help from Wilona, he had no idea what was happening except the duel and the cool battle. After a 'brief'—read as annoyingly long because of Jaden's apparent incompetence in attempting to teach others made any exposition out of him as helpful as sleeping in a bed made of sharpened needles—explanation of Duel Spirits, the Spirit Honest explained he used to belong to a man named Yusuke Fujiwara—a name that Alexis recognized as one of the other names missing along with her brother—and that one day he simply kept him in that box. He had no real idea of what happened to his master of Alexis' brother.

However, they all did realize that there is something sinister afoot in the school. Especially if something like that was found in a student's old dorm.

Yet, even as new revelations were made, no one noticed a small piece of darkness was trapped under the sole of Wilona's shoe, laughing a silent laugh before fading into nothing.

{Tag Force: Heroes and Villains}


A/N: And here we go! A real big deviation from cannon. We get to meet Honest like three seasons before he's supposed to appear! Not only that, the duel seems to have allowed four new people the ability to see spirits even though they couldn't before! What will this do? What does it mean that Titan Is trapped somewhere new? And craziest of all, What's that mean for this story in general?

I really hope you guys enjoy this story. It's been a really long time since I've had fun in writing and while Duels aren't my forte, I do love writing the characters I enjoyed a lot as a kid.

Also, cards with * usually mean I made them up or they're altered. As of right now? Through the few chapters of this fic, I think Izana is slightly altered because she can't actually attack directly for her second attack otherwise, everything else should match her normal card effects.

So here are some notes on what I did for this chapter.

Shroud of Evasion: I kinda made it stop battle damage twice. One in its first effect and then a banish effect if it's the graveyard.

Hero Inspiration**: This is a fake trap card I imagined up. "If a Fusion E-Hero monster leaves the field not through battle, if the fusion materials are still in the graveyard, special summon them into the field."

And Alchemical Experiment***: This card exists in the Manga and Level 9 Winged Kuriboh is based on the Manga as well, not the TCG. I felt like the Manga version was way simpler to use than it's TCG version.

I think there will be more altered cards in the future though, can't really stop that since again, Duel's aren't my forte, but I do enjoy them.

See you guys soon.